I came back because in that room, and nowhere else in my whole exhausted life, someone was looking after me.

Everywhere else I was the strong one, the provider, the one who could not afford to break down because there was no one to catch him if he did.

In Nora’s room I could set that down.

I could be, for one hour twice a week, a person someone worried about, and the relief of it was so enormous that I did not even recognize it as relief.

I thought I was going there for her.